"Not exactly… he's kind of an outrider for Henry Hooker, down here looking for stolen cattle."

"Damnātio," Signore Difranco half shouted. It was a Latin word meaning "everlasting divine punishment," and he often used it rather than the English "damnation."

"Your mother would be angry if she knew you were consorting with such a person as this Higgins man," Signore Difranco continued. "It puts me in a bad way."

I stood up from my chair in the lobby. "I appreciate all you have done for me, Signore Difranco, but I am now twenty years old and am able to take care of myself. And if I want to take a ride out of town with Charley Higgins, who happens to be kin, then I guess I wi...

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